SCANDINAVIA 217

the events are supposed to have occurred within living memory.
The excitement of bride-stealing and battle, which opens the piece,
contrasts with the pathos of the last scenes, when the wounded
lover, trying vainly to hide his sores, comes home to die. Grimhild's
Revenge (DGF 5) derives, not from the Edda, but from the Nibe-
lungenlied, but the Faeroese ballads of the cycle combine more than
one source.l The Norse ballads (Landstad 9-11) are also character-
ized by their independence. The battle with the dragon in Ragnar
Lodbroks Saga was a popular feature, re-created in the new7 manner
by the authors of Regnar and little Krage and The Dragon-fight
(DGF 22-4). It was also freely imitated in Ribolfs fight with the
Dragon and Aller (DGF 27). The poetical fragments embedded in
the Hervararsaga are evidence of the great age of this tradition.
The sword Tyrfing—named after the ancient Tervingi—Is in-
vincible indeed, but brings death to him who holds it. It causes
two brothers to fight together in Samso, and a father to avenge the
one who falls (Alf i Odderskjaer or Angelfyr and Helmer Kamp,
DGF 19). A fine symbolism sublimates the ballad of The Avenger's
Sword (DGF 25). The sword is inspired with a rage for vengeance;
having killed, it lusts to kill again.

Now lay thee still, thou shining brand,

now lay thee still in Our Lord's name.
Then spake the sword in weary mood:

"Now lust I for thine own heart's blood.
Hadst thou not named me by rny name,

right now should I have been thy bane/

Hagbard and Signe (DGF 20) is a relic of the old Danish epos of
that name. It is one of the finest of all ballads, and one frequently
imitated. GoreVs Daughter and Count H&firik and Sir Carl and
Lady Rigmor and Alvar LeSiesak in Norway (Landstad 32) are
related to it, and in Germany and Flanders the most characteristic
episode is a ballad motif. There is tenderness in the tragedy, and
the irresistible power of love; Hagbard and Signe are the Tristan
and Isolde of the Scandinavian North.

A striking group of ballads derives from the Thidrikssaga^ trans-
lated from Low German at the beginning of the thirteenth century.
There is the gathering of the German paladins in They were seven
and ten times seven, the expedition against Brittany or Bertmg's
Land, the fight between Svend Ungersvend and Berner the giant,

1 H. de Boor, Die fdroischen Lieder des Nibelungenzyklus, Heidelberg, 1918.

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